The MOSDEF Survey: The Mass-Metallicity relationship and the existence of the FMR at z~1.5

Abstract

We analyze the rest-optical emission-line ratios of z~1.5 galaxies drawn from the MOSFIRE Deep Evolution Field (MOSDEF) survey. Using composite spectra we investigate the mass-metallicity relation (MZR) at z~1.5 and measure its evolution to z=0. When using gas-phase metallicities based on the N2 line ratio, we find that the MZR evolution from z~1.5 to z=0 depends on stellar mass, evolving by $\Delta \log (O/H)\sim 0.25$ dex at $M_{\ast }<10^{9.75}{M}_{\odot }$ down to $\Delta \log (O/H)\sim 0.05$ at $M_{\ast }>10^{10.5}{M}_{\odot }$. In contrast, the O3N2-based MZR shows a constant offset of $\Delta \log (O/H)\sim 0.30$ across all masses, consistent with previous MOSDEF results based on independent metallicity indicators, and suggesting that O3N2 provides a more robust metallicity calibration for our z~1.5 sample. We investigated the secondary dependence of the MZR on SFR by measuring correlated scatter about the mean $M_{\ast }$-specific SFR and $M_{\ast }-\log (O3N2)$ relations. We find an anti-correlation between $\log (O/H)$ and sSFR offsets, indicating the presence of a $M_{\ast }$-SFR-Z relation, though with limited significance. Additionally, we find that our z~1.5 stacks lie along the z=0 metallicity sequence at fixed $\mu =\log (M_{\ast }/M_{\odot })-0.6\times \log (SFR/{\mathrm{M}}_{\odot }\mathrm{y}{\mathrm{r}}^{-1})$ suggesting that the z~1.5 stacks can be described by the z=0 fundamental metallicity relation (FMR). However, using different calibrations can shift the calculated metallicities off of the local FMR, indicating that appropriate calibrations are essential for understanding metallicity evolution with redshift. Finally, understanding how [NII]/H$\alpha$ scales with galaxy properties is crucial to accurately describe the effects of blended [NII] and H$\alpha$ on redshift and H$\alpha$ flux measurements in future large surveys utilizing low-resolution spectra such as with Euclid and the Roman Space Telescope.

14 Pages, 9 figures, Accepted to MNRAS

References in corpus (23)

• The propagation of uncertainties in stellar population synthesis modeling I: The relevance of uncertain aspects of stellar evolution and the IMF to the derived physical properties of galaxies
• The Mass-Metallicity Relation at z~2
• An ultra-deep near-infrared spectrum of a compact quiescent galaxy at z=2.2
• 3D-HST WFC3-selected Photometric Catalogs in the Five CANDELS/3D-HST Fields: Photometry, Photometric Redshifts and Stellar Masses
• Strong Nebular Line Ratios in the Spectra of z~2-3 Star-forming Galaxies: First Results from KBSS-MOSFIRE
• Galaxy Pairs in the Sloan Digital Sky Survey I: Star Formation, AGN Fraction, and the Luminosity/Mass-Metallicity Relation
• The Origin of the Galaxy Mass-Metallicity Relation and Implications for Galactic Outflows
• The MOSFIRE Deep Evolution Field (MOSDEF) Survey: Rest-Frame Optical Spectroscopy for ~1500 H-Selected Galaxies at 1.37 < z < 3.8
• The Mass-Metallicity and the Fundamental Metallicity Relation revisited on a fully Te-based abundance scale for galaxies
• The MOSDEF Survey: Mass, Metallicity, and Star-formation Rate at z~2.3
• Deriving model-based T${}_e$-consistent chemical abundances in ionised gaseous nebulae
• The MOSDEF Survey: Optical AGN Diagnostics at z~2.3
• MUFASA: Galaxy star formation, gas, and metal properties across cosmic time
• The equilibrium view on dust and metals in galaxies: Galactic outflows drive low dust-to-metal ratios in dwarf galaxies
• The MOSDEF Survey: the Variation of the Dust Attenuation Curve with Metallicity
• A Critical Look at the Mass-Metallicity-SFR Relation in the Local Universe. I. An Improved Analysis Framework and Confounding Systematics
• The FMOS-COSMOS survey of star-forming galaxies at $z\sim 1.6$ VI: Redshift and emission-line catalog and basic properties of star-forming galaxies
• The MOSDEF survey: AGN multi-wavelength identification, selection biases and host galaxy properties
• The mass-metallicity and fundamental metallicity relations at z>2 using VLT and Subaru near-infrared spectroscopy of zCOSMOS galaxies
• Biases in metallicity measurements from global galaxy spectra: the effects of flux-weighting and diffuse ionized gas contamination
• The MOSDEF-LRIS Survey: The Connection Between Massive Stars and Ionized Gas in Individual Galaxies at $z\sim 2$
• The interstellar medium in [OIII]-selected star-forming galaxies at $z\sim 3.2$
• The MOSDEF Survey: [SIII] as a New Probe of Evolving ISM Conditions

Cited by in corpus (14)

• JWST/NIRSpec Measurements of the Relationships Between Nebular Emission-line Ratios and Stellar Mass at z~3-6
• The mass-metallicity relation at z~1-2 and its dependence on star formation rate
• A new census of dust and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons at z=0.7-2 with JWST MIRI
• CO Emission, Molecular Gas, and Metallicity in Main-Sequence Star-Forming Galaxies at $z\sim 2.3$
• DEVILS: Cosmic evolution of SED-derived metallicities and their connection to star-formation histories
• Catalogue of model star clusters in the Milky Way and M31 galaxies
• The resolved chemical abundance properties within the interstellar medium of star-forming galaxies at $\text{z}\approx 1.5$
• Semi-analytic spectral fitting: simultaneously modelling the mass accumulation and chemical evolution in MaNGA spiral galaxies
• Constraints on galactic outflows from the metallicity-stellar mass-SFR relation of EAGLE simulation and SDSS galaxies
• The JWST EXCELS Survey: gas-phase metallicity evolution at 2 < z < 8
• The H$\alpha$ and [O III] $\lambda 5007$ Luminosity Functions of $1.2<z<1.9$ Emission-Line Galaxies from HST Grism Spectroscopy
• Rapid, out of equilibrium metal enrichment indicated by a flat mass-metallicity relation at z~6 from NIRCam grism spectroscopy
• The nebular properties of star-forming galaxies at intermediate redshift from the Large Early Galaxy Astrophysics Census
• KURVS: chemical properties from multiple strong line calibrations for star-forming galaxies at $z\sim 1.5$